Satyajit Ray

The Big City

The Big City

The Big City, the great Satyajit Ray’s first portrayal of contemporary life in his native Kolkata, follows the personal triumphs and frustrations of Arati (Madhabi Mukherjee), who decides, despite the initial protests of her bank-clerk husband, to take a job to help support their family. With remarkable sensitivity and attention to the details of everyday working-class life, Ray builds a powerful human drama that is at once a hopeful morality tale and a commentary on the identity of the modern Indian woman.

Film Info

  • India
  • 1963
  • 135 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.33:1
  • Bengali
  • Spine #668

Special Features

  • New, restored 2K digital film transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • New interview with actor Madhabi Mukherjee
  • Satyajit Ray and the Modern Woman, a new interview with Ray scholar Suranjan Ganguly
  • The Coward (Kapurush, 1965), a short feature by Ray that also addresses modern female identity and stars Mukherjee and Soumitra Chatterjee
  • Satyajit Ray (1974), a documentary short by B. D. Garga
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by scholar Chandak Sengoopta and a 1980s interview with Ray by his biographer Andrew Robinson

    New cover by Marian Bantjes

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • New, restored 2K digital film transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • New interview with actor Madhabi Mukherjee
  • Satyajit Ray and the Modern Woman, a new interview with Ray scholar Suranjan Ganguly
  • The Coward (Kapurush, 1965), a short feature by Ray that also addresses modern female identity and stars Mukherjee and Soumitra Chatterjee
  • Satyajit Ray (1974), a documentary short by B. D. Garga
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by scholar Chandak Sengoopta and a 1980s interview with Ray by his biographer Andrew Robinson

    New cover by Marian Bantjes
The Big City
Cast
Anil Chatterjee
Subrata Mazumdar
Madhabi Mukherjee
Arati Mazumdar
Jaya Bhaduri
Bani, Subrata’s sister
Haren Chatterjee
Priyagopal, Subrata’s father
Sefalika Devi
Sarojini, Subrata’s mother
Prasenjit Sarkar
Pintu
Haradhan Banerjee
Mr. Mukerjee
Vicky Redwood
Edith Simmons
Bibhuti Banerjee
Priyagopal’s former students
Shyamal Ghosal
Priyagopal’s former students
Shailen Mukherjee
Priyagopal’s former students
Credits
Director
Satyajit Ray
Producer
R. D. Bansal
Based on the original stories “Abataranika” and “Akinchan” by
Narendranath Mitra
Music
Satyajit Ray
Screenplay
Satyajit Ray
Cinematography
Subrata Mitra
Art director
Bansi Chandragupta
Editor
Dulal Dutta
Sound
Debesh Ghosh
Sound
Atul Chatterjee
Sound
Sujit Sarkar

Current

The Big City: A Woman’s Place
The Big City: A Woman’s Place

This moving drama about gender, race, and class in 1960s Kolkata is a pioneering work from Satyajit Ray.

By Chandak Sengoopta

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Isabel Sandoval’s Top 10

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The Silent Gaze in Satyajit Ray’s Almost-Love Story

Deep Dives

The Silent Gaze in Satyajit Ray’s Almost-Love Story

In one of his most underrated gems, now playing on the Criterion Channel, the Bengali master explored the futility of words and the power of a look.

By Terrence Rafferty

A Tour of the Taj With Satyajit Ray

Flashbacks

A Tour of the Taj With Satyajit Ray

The author’s encounters with the great Indian filmmaker.

By Peter Cowie